DENVER, COLO. – When it comes to recovering from the economic downturn, Canada is better positioned to recover than the distributor’s other geographies said Brian Aebig, vice-president and general manager of Avnet Technology Solutions Canada (NYSE: AVT).
The Canadian business is further ahead when it comes to the recovery, in part because it didn’t drop as far as the U.S. and other geographies, said Aebig. In Canadian currency, Avnet actually increased its revenue, year over year. It was only U.S. currency conversion charges that hampered the bottom line.
“Through the first month of our fiscal 2010 budget we’re on pace so far, and we’re on track for a strong Q1,” said Aebig. “The pipeline looks strong as well. As an indicator of health it’s a more singles and doubles, the pipeline isn’t dependent on home runs.”
Aebig credits Avnet’s success to a the activities, investments and bets it has made, in particular it’s solutions-based approach.
“Left to the distributor status-quo we might have had the same drops as others,” said Aebig. “Our investments have allowed us to smooth the edges, and we’re now well poised to take advantage of the up-tick as we move forward.”
Avnet will be taking a strategic approach when it comes to bringing more of those solution programs to Canada. On the vertical side, HealthPath was the first of Avnet’s university programs brought to Canada, with much work being done to adjust the program for the unique features of the Canadian health care market.
On the technology side, VirtualPath has come to Canada and Aebig said he expects another technology path, likely StoragePath, to come to Canada before the end of the calendar year.